Wednesday 15 June 2011

Away from home in a foreign land-IDENTITY- what is your own?

Being away from mother land, being away from kith and kin, being away from what is your own! What does that mean to you. I chose to write on this topic, because, nine years away from my own land has caused a deep scar in my heart, which I dont think will fade away.

To my people back in my mother land, it is a great opportunity to go to a foreign country, where of course the currency value is higher than your very own country's. It may be exciting to go to foreign countries, but it should never be for very long. It is considered a privilege if the son in law of the family was working overseas. The entire family would boast about it to the family members. There was a time in India when unemployment was at its heights, and hence people with good talent moved out of India in search of jobs. That was the dot com fall time. Then when the field of IT began spearheading, unemployment was thawed by it.   Yet people did not stay back in India, in fact more people started going out in search of better jobs, better lifestyles. I wonder how many of you, my readers will agree to this point. But I wish to write as I percieve it.

Different countries offer different privileges to foreigners working in their Country. In that order, Singapore gives good privileges to people from other countries, staying and working for Singapore's development. Knowledge workers can obtain their Permanent Resident (PR) privilege, and once you get your PR you are also eligible to buy a house. Houses cannot be bought on first hand though, it can be bought as second hand, meaning the first owner has at least owned it for five years. Though these privileges are  given to  foreign talents, citizens are treated with a higher order of preference, which I think is fair. Likewise, there are umpteen other issues. Yet, citizens of the nation tend to hate foreigners. For some reason or the other they keep taunting foreigners for having taken away what could have otherwise been their opportunity. Now how is it that foreigners could have helped this?  I seriously do not know the answer.

And I DONT consider myself to be blessed amply for staying  in a foreign land, where I hold a valid NRIC, have my own house to stay in, a job where I am satisfied, my kids get to enjoy so many things that they would not get to in my motherland and my list continues.....for the reason that I wonder what is my true IDENTITY!

I bet there are many out there who would share similar feelings. Share your thought by sending in your commments.You may have had same kinda experiences, but in other countries. I would love to read your comments.







4 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. I just started out on a comment but it just got so complicated that I deleted it. For now, I'll just say this: When we are born Indian, I think we remain Indian wherever we go, even if we are not able to lead the kind of life we lead in our motherlands -- that of a first class citizen. The only thing that I would trade that for, happiness or what my idea of that is.
    17 June 2011 17:48

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  3. I'm ready to go out and start working again, but its not going to be easy because of my visa status. But I have no complaints; at least not yet :)

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  4. Hi Div,

    probs i ve written the superficial aspect of living in a foreign land.....coz it gets complicated as we write in detail. there have been several incidents, especially in the place where i currently reside, it is multiracial. Even among Indians we have Indians from india, Indians from Singapore, Indians from Malaysia etc....There has been many conflicts of interest, starting from culture to donno what? so i stopped my post at a very shallow depth.....

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